The Extremes

Published: 2005 by Gollancz, ISBN 0-575-07578-3 [paperback £7.99; pp.314]. The cover image is from the US hardcover edition, from St Martin’s Press. Also available in translation.

Teresa Simons is drawn to a quiet English seaside town in the aftermath of a motiveless massacre by a gunman. Her husband, an FBI agent, had died in a similar outburst of violence in a small Texas town, on the same day. Similarities between the two incidents of spree violence, apparently taking place at random, are shocking and inexplicable. Teresa finds she can come to terms with the senseless nature of the murders only by immersing herself in the world of virtual reality. [Includes: Postscript by John Clute, paperback edition only.]